Mcneil
A Scottish surname meaning "champion" or "victory".
Name Census estimates that about 25 living Americans carry the first name Mcneil. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Mcneil today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mcneil births was 1930 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mcneil. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Mcneil. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
25
~ 1 in 13,710,174 Americans
Peak year
1930
6 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
1993 SSA rank
#9,664
Tracked since 1914
Census
Mcneil in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 166 people with the first name Mcneil, which placed it at #42,903 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#42,903
National first-name rank
People counted
166
166 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
49.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mcneil
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mcneil is Black at 49.4%. The next largest groups are White (35.5%) and Two or More Races (6.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Mcneil described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Mcneil at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American49.4% · 82
- White35.5% · 59
- Two or more races6.6% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino4.8% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 6
Popularity
Mcneil: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mcneil from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 11 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1940s peak, Mcneil remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Mcneil by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Mcneil during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Mcneil
The name Mcneil is a Scottish surname that has been adopted as a given name. It originated in the Highlands of Scotland and is derived from the Gaelic phrase "mac Nèill," meaning "son of Neil." The name Neil itself is believed to come from the Old Irish name "Niall," which may have originated from the Latin name "Nigellus," meaning "dark-complexioned."
The earliest known record of the name Mcneil dates back to the 12th century, when it was used as a surname by several influential families in the Scottish Highlands. One of the most notable bearers of the name was Niall Mor MacNeil, a powerful chief of the MacNeil clan who lived in the late 13th century.
Throughout history, the name Mcneil has been associated with various historical figures and events. In the 16th century, Hector Mcneil was a prominent Scottish scholar and poet who wrote extensively in Gaelic and Latin. Another notable figure was Sir John Mcneil (1795-1872), a British army officer who served in the Napoleonic Wars and later became a colonial administrator in British India.
In the 19th century, John Mcneil (1826-1890) was a Scottish-born businessman and politician who served as a member of the Canadian House of Commons. Another bearer of the name was William Mcneil (1858-1929), an American engineer and inventor best known for developing the modern concrete mixer.
More recently, Robert Mcneil (1918-2016) was a Canadian-American journalist and television personality who co-founded the PBS news program "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour." In the field of sports, Kevin Mcneil (born 1963) was an American track and field athlete who won gold medals in the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
While the name Mcneil has Scottish origins, it has been adopted by families from various backgrounds around the world, with bearers of the name making significant contributions in various fields, including literature, politics, engineering, and athletics.
People
Mcneil + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mcneil as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Mcneil: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mcneil?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 25 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mcneil going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 13,710,174 US residents.
Is Mcneil a common name?
We classify Mcneil as "Very Rare". It ranks above 43.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 53 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mcneil most popular?
The single biggest year for Mcneil was 1930, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mcneil is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mcneil in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 166 people with the name Mcneil, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #42,903 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Mcneil in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Mcneil?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Mcneil leans strongly male. 145 people counted with this name were male (87.3%), compared with 21 female bearers (12.7%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Mcneil?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mcneil is Black at 49.4%. The next largest groups are White (35.5%) and Two or More Races (6.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Mcneil most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Mcneil in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.4% (82 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Mcneil in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mcneil a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Mcneil in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Mcneil still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mcneil in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Mcneil can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Mcneil?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.